


Song of the fireflies

by jarofactonbell



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Depictions of anxiety, FIREFLIES NOW SING IN MY UNIVERSE, Gen, M/M, half inspireed by ghibli half generated by me at 1 am, magical realism i gues??, me watering the hyunlix tags, some blowing stuff up, very slow burn, you can find me hiding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 18:47:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14171244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jarofactonbell/pseuds/jarofactonbell
Summary: Hyunjin chuckles, reaching for his hands, turning them over so that Felix’s palm faces up. Lowering his mouth onto the cracked palm, Hyunjin grazes his palm, breathing a soft ‘brave, brave soul, you have done so much already’.“I’m proud of you,” he imprints the shape of his lips onto Felix’s palm, “please know that.”“Okay,” Felix echoes, “okay.”“Will you be with me?” Hyunjin looks up. Something beyond their eyes meet. Felix steps closer. Cradles Hyunjin’s chin in both of his palms. Rises as Hyunjin does. Hands circle around his waist, pressing against spine.Standing on tiptoes, he leans his forehead to the other boy, bending his head to meet his in the middle. Skins meet and somewhere in the middle, they become one.





	Song of the fireflies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hyunjinist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyunjinist/gifts).



> You see me gifting this work especially to my support person and amazing girl indy but in all honesty this goes to stray typous my support group, the friends that love me despite my many breakdowns, self-doubt and questionable one-liners. Clearly I rushed through editing I will do that tomorrow morning but aasdfghjkl here is to the fandom, Stray Kids my inspiration and to my friends. 
> 
> Also indy I prepared an apology letter, it went something like  
> I'M SORRY FOR THIS  
> I'M SORRY FOR EVERYTHING
> 
> please accept it

When Felix saw him, he dropped a vial, thankfully empty, and regretted many things in his life leading up to that point.

Honestly, anyone would react similarly. Anyone with eyes can. _Honestly_. He has the eyes of Melancholy with a capital M, skin smooth and perfect and makes his freckles stupid and ugly, this head of fluffy hair sitting comfortably at tiramisu and chocolate cake and the cutest nose that scrunches up as the overwhelming scent of the herbs bombard his entrance. Felix didn’t have time to even think. All the floodgates went HIDE and he dropped quickly to a crouch and hid himself behind the counter, trying to remember the customer service’s line that had been ingrained into his flesh and bones, because he’s trained to deal with goblins from the northern valleys, not pretty faes down the street who lure people into forests and got Jisung to paint himself as a Scottish warrior for five days straight.

The boy entered the shop stopped at the door, glancing confusedly up at the windchime dangling on the doorway. The sound of smashed glass and Felix swearing profusely in three different languages must’ve startled him because he turns to see where the sounds are coming from, scanning around, mouth puckered in a pout.

Felix lets out a vile curse in High Mountain Elvish, dumping all the glass shards into the mobile garbage bin which blows a raspberry at him, screaming ‘You go eat glass you rotten mouse!’

“Shush,” he shoos it away, “off, go away!”

_“Shame on your ancestors!”_

“Hello?” The boy asks. Felix gulps and tries to will his appearance to stay put and _don’t curse him midway through your sentence, Lee_ , and hops to his feet.

He’s also trained in combat and he can tell within the time frame that they are not making eye contact that something is off.

Maybe the guy isn’t looking at where Felix is intently staring at him, instead looking everywhere but at Felix, which is a fair point made, his hair is burnt and he’s all splotches of angry red on oddly tanned skin. But when Felix starts to execute the touch down routine for plane landing, he knows for sure that something’s up.

The boy pays his flapping arms no mind, asking instead “Did you move the counter?” before bumping into it with a weird side step.

Felix makes a strangled noise and throws his upper body onto and over the counter in a useless attempt to save the guy from himself, stumbling around knocking onto the glass cabinet.

Jisung screams a levitation spell from outside, and the cabinet shifts to the right. In a mad dash akin to the discovery lost gold of Jeongin’s, Jisung descends upon the boy with a side tackle, grounding them both on the spot, him holding onto the boy by the elbows.

“Hi, hello!” He shrieks.

The boy’s frown is replaced with an eye-scrunching smile, the skin around his eyes bunch up and his pale eyes disappear and Jisung snickers at Felix’s slack jaw as he unabashedly stares, mesmerised.

“Close yer mouth, Lee, don’t drool,” Jisung, his proclaimed best friend, the guy who has his back, whispers loudly for the customers to hear. Felix’s ears dot bright red and he flicks thyme leaves at Jisung who giggles and swings behind the boy who’s tracing their conversation with a slight tilt of his head.

“Is that the Felix you told me last night?” The boy asks.

Felix swears in English. It’s a string of foul words his mother would love to wash his mouth clean with herbs and detergents. Jisung gasps and attempts to cover up the boy’s ears even though he towers a good 10 cm over Jisung’s small squirrel’s ass.

“No, this is…” Jisung’s laughing interrupts him, “Lee… Chan.”

“Lies!”

“Shut _up_!”

The boy finally, finally turns and squints at where Felix might be. Is he that small and insignificant? Who knows?

“I’m Hwang Hyunjin. Nice to finally hear from you!” The way that phrase is integrated makes Felix buffer in real life. He forces down all the nasty feelies about invading someone’s personal space and slides in front of Hyunjin, with no visible recognition from the taller guy.

Then it hits him, like how puberty hasn’t hit him yet, that the obvious is there. All this time.

Hyunjin can’t see.

Jisung shoos him out of the way and guides Hyunjin to the counter where he takes out a brown package. It’s labelled ‘sleep remedies and joint pains’. Hyunjin presses gold coins into Jisung’s back pocket and heads out, just as quiet as he entered, Felix tracing the way he’s moving almost without any difficulties. Anyone would too, if it’s part of their routine.

 

“How…” he’s struggling to find words, “how bad is it, Hyunjin’s…” he wrings his wrists, “thing?”

“Try to breathe, Lee,” Jisung grins, all loop-sided and out-to-ruin-Felix’s-life, “you sound like a father waiting for your daughter’s birth.”

He quells down the urge to reply sarcastically with ‘I might as well am’ and instead opts for “Well?”

“Complete loss of vision,” The brunette looks back down to his spell book, thumbing the page, “no sight whatsoever.”

“Is this like…a curse thing or a genetic thing?” He hopes it doesn’t sound too obvious but Jisung’s head slowly moves up to stare at him, glasses sliding off the ridge of his nose.

“Yo,” the corner of Jisung’s mouth curls up, “trying to break the curse or something, Prince Felix?”

“That’s horrible,” he wails, “but is it a curse?”

“Not as far as I know, kid,” Jisung mumbles a spell that corrects the mistake on the page, ink realigning and symbols rearranging, “don’t go doing weird shit.”

“What weird shit can I do? I can barely cast a spell right. I drop things all the time. I turned Chan’s bag into a frog last week. I think I’m being off just not doing magic in general,” he taps the tattoo Jisung and he got when he casted his first successful spell, sighing. It’s not that he’s untalented or generally shitty at magic – he’s just really clumsy. Like accidentally cut your leg off clumsy or burn half of the shop down clumsy.

One of the listed things happened before. Chan spent the good half of that month laughing whenever he saw Felix’s hair, almost shaven due to him salvaging the flammable potions from the cellar and getting almost fried, baked and roasted in one jump in that fire.

“Everything is fireproof you dumbass,” Chan cackled, holding his stomach, “oh you’re so dumb, I love hearing the shenanigans you get up to when you torch down buildings.”

“Maybe lay off the magic, mate, and go be nice,” Jisung puts a Very Gentle Hand on his arm, cheeks puffed, “he likes the little gestures. Bring flowers. Serenade him under the stars. Tell him he looks great. Start with that. Go cure blindness after.”

“You say it like love is easy,” he snorts.

“Sometimes you overcomplicate simple things,” Jisung closes the book, “and I believe that love isn’t hard, you just make it harder than it seems.”

 

Felix isn’t the type to take people’s advices that early on before he acts out his own and completely butchers it – listening to good advice runs counter to what he lives by. But some deeper part of him, a space mostly occupied by Jisung, continuously chanting ‘GO EASY OR NO GO’ that he decides to forgo the stupid decision of ‘ask if his blindness is a curse by a salty goblin.’ He’s tuning the bells, the sounds too discordant for the fairies who in retaliation started a dance party outside his window at 2 this morning, making sure that the meme ‘you ain’t got no sleep coz of me’ plays out in full cycle.

He’s screwing the bell tightly when someone kicks him and he topples over not in pain, but in embarrassment and surprise.

The person drops down to his level and tries to help rather unhelpfully seeing as Felix is all good and fine, just humiliated because he should’ve seen that foot coming, pale eyes and puckered lips asking him if he’s fine.

“Are you okay?” Hyunjin’s hands flutter and try to grab onto him, but they’re apart enough that neither of them make direct skin contact. Felix doesn’t know too much about the etiquettes of letting people you just met for a day who also kicked you because they genuinely couldn’t see you and who you also have a smidgen fancy on too near your face so he just scoots back a bit and coughs out an ‘I’m fine, don’t worry’ to scare Hyunjin off.

“You sure?” The brunette scrunches his brows, “sounds like you hit the ground pretty hard.”

Felix is doomed to say stupid things at some point during the day. He has a daily quota that he needs to be filled in and the sooner he says the dumb things the earlier he can say more intelligent words. The time at which the bouts of stupidity is yet to be monitored and controlled. Sometimes he just bursts out dumb things per his limited understanding. Sometimes his own brain sabotages his own attempts at life.

Such as right now and right then. He’s about to say the words ‘Nah it’s fine, don’t worry too much, mate’ but what comes out is a surprisingly calm “I have a very committed relationship with falling; it’s almost as bad as my love for the cold, hard ground.”

He wants to slap himself and get on the first air balloon that flies over the Atlantic and drop into the middle of the Trash Vortex, because that’s where he belongs. Who lets him walk the earth like this. Who gives him no guidance. Why had the higher powers forsaken him?

Hyunjin lets out a small laugh. It’s not unkind. It then turns into a series of snorts and he chokes on his breath, inhaling too much air inside his lungs.

“Stop laughing,” Felix whines, “I have a daily quota of stupid things I say and do and I’m determined to fill it up.”

“Well then,” Hyunjin rises and holds out a hand to him, “I guess that’s strike one.”

Felix’s shrieks of pain and sorrow can be heard interspersed with Hyunjin’s half apologies and half laughs.

 

Hyunjin buys the same things. Jisung has a stock of these ready on his shelf in the back. They smell strongly of jasmine petals and oolong leaves. Hyunjin handles the package carefully, fingers grazing the packaging, leaves splintering inside the paper bag. Felix, under actual social etiquettes of people need privacy when they assume you’re not boring a hole into their head, tries to avert his gaze, but out of the corner of his eyes he can see Hyunjin clutching the package close to his chest and letting it stay there.

Two heartbeats later Hyunjin takes out the payments and whispers “Here you go Felix, tell Jisung I say hi.”

Felix makes a sound that is partly ‘Oh okay’ ‘I’ll see you again maybe’ and ‘Why Jisung’ which must’ve sound acceptable as a farewell to Hyunjin because he salutes him before leaving out the door, hand stretching to reach the windchimes. Fingers and bells graze, making music as Hyunjin walks out, metals twinkling into the morning air.

 Jisung tattled off to Chan when Felix dazedly relayed the message and together they chanted ‘Felix got a little crush’ to the tune of ‘Mary had a little lamb’ while levitating candles and generally being menaces that they are. Felix ignored them and tried to pour rosehip oil into a glass without spilling any, trying to remember the potion for good skin complexion.

 

The next day Hyunjin shows up again, this time dressed differently. Very nicely. His skin suits the jacket he’s wearing. He smiles brilliantly upon entering, hands stretched higher up to touch the bells and whistling along with the melodies. Even though the smile isn’t directed at Felix specifically, he’d like to think that it is, simpering under the mellow sunlight and bells twinkling in the background.

“Good morning,” he greets, voice all fluffy cloud and sweetness of spring water, “how are you?”

Mama Lee jokes that when you do something for the first time you’re committed to carry out that something until you either replace it with another habit or you die. Mama Lee is right on a lot of counts, ranging from ‘you would make a dangerous witch’ and ‘wear warm clothes when you go mountain climbing’, and her words are marking another dash on Things Mama Lee Says That Should Be Taken More Seriously repertoire.

“Frogs are slippery,” his tone is sombre, “and I hate myself. Always. All the time,” he concludes, head already forming escape routes and how to flee a nation. “How are you?”

Hyunjin deliberates a response, or maybe he’s just trying to move away from the mobile rubbish bin shrieking death at the fire ants.

“Great actually. Warm sun. I might go for a longer walk before going home. Are you busy for the rest of the day?” He takes really long and leisurely steps to the counter, fluidly moving through air with the familiarity of someone who visited the place before. The package already sits ready on the counter and he puts the paper bag package into his hands, turning it over. Hyunjin is coming closer. His hands shake, rattling the loose dried leaves. The webs between his fingers become sticky and gross and with every step he’s swallowing back more and more spit his tongue just decided to generate a fuck ton more.

“Hey,” Hyunjin’s words are like air, the sounds of breathing in pollen under the embrace of reeds, “you’re doing okay. Take your time.”

Felix breathes out, embarrassingly loud and stops gripping the package, letting it sit on the counter.

He counts to ten inside his head. Can still feel his heartbeat inside his throat but Hyunjin is there smiling serenely, tapping the counter in time with his pulse, as if synched to Felix’s inner workings of the heart.

And they say magic doesn’t exist in each one of us.

Felix decides to be a little braver. Get a little liquid courage from his namesake. Crawls a hesitant hand to Hyunjin’s fingers. Pauses. Squeezes twice, his own fingers smaller compared to Hyunjin’s, even though his whole hand can only cover the top of Hyunjin’s. Slides the package near the boy so that the paper bumps into his skin. Squeezes Hyunjin’s fingers once more before letting go, his heart and mind too stunned to react, diluted rhythm steady inside his ribs.

“Oh,” Hyunjin lets out.

Felix’s heartbeat and paranoia still, ready to skyrocket.

“That was nice,” the boy with all the opalescent tones of reflecting glass in his eyes smiles at Felix, now really looking at him, “that made me calmer.”

Nothing really drastically still, his heart is still out there trying to deceive him that he’s about to die if he doesn’t run, but his brain knows it, the little shit, that he has minimal reasons to twist those exact words into something they’re not. Hyunjin takes the package, holding it again, close to his chest. He’s waiting for a reply.

He debates on the logistics of saying ‘I was legitimately terrified the whole time but thank you for pretending that you were nervous so I can deceive myself into thinking I did it for you so my sense of gratification for helping others which translates to moments of shortly-lived happiness is made real’. Shaking his head, he only mumbles an ‘It’s fine, I get nervous too’ which isn’t exactly a lie, nor does it encompass what he wanted to say.

“You never answered my question,” Hyunjin reminds him, hand carding through his hair. He pulls out a small phoenix’s feather, humming as he traces the texture with his fingers.

“Just…studying on some potions then helping out with chores. I might go to the fields, to listen to the fireflies’ songs,” he starts doing the signs for ‘breathe’.

“Take me there sometimes,” Hyunjin taps the counter, “I like music.”

“You do,” Felix admits, triumphant that he’s not spouting nonsense by this point of extreme paranoia and anxiety, “you tickle the bells when you come in. They like the music that they make with you.”

Hyunjin’s eye crinkles, beauty spot showing. Felix swallows, trying to remember the way his skin folds and falls over honey-washed air. They don’t speak a word, letting the bells and wind speak. Hyunjin’s eyes meet his confidently now, searching. He hopes it’s good, whatever he finds down there.

“Later, we can go later. Come with me home sometimes. My family haven’t met you yet.”

“Why would your family want to meet me,” he stresses, _“me.”_

“Good vibes, I supposed. I talk about you a lot,” Hyunjin salutes him, winking. The nerve of this guy. That went straight from his fingertips to his chest. “See you soon, Lee Chan.”

_“You know it’s Felix!”_ He cries out after Hyunjin’s back, hand reaching up to glide across the bells, metals falling unto sunlight and dripping all over the floor, Hyunjin’s laughter in the mix, conglomerating like a symphony of synaesthesia.

 

Hyunjin returns. Repeats. Always talks to him, breathing evenly or breathing harshly. Rainy days the same as sunny days. Some days Felix venture to the threshold, too afraid to leave the indoors for the outdoors, standing close to Hyunjin who doesn’t force him to leave or to stay.

Jisung and Chan continuously chant ‘Felix and Hyunjin’ in varying notes of tone-deafness, even though they both can sing very well. Jisung was commissioned to think of a ship name and summoned lightning to emblazon a very annoying big ‘HYUNLIX’ onto Felix’s backyard where Mama Lee asked no question, just wondered when she’ll meet this boy.

“There is no boy,” he kept denying, “no boy at all.”

Felix doesn’t try to curb the part of him that wants to hold Hyunjin’s fingers. He had been coaxed, from the safe and familiar space of the counter, to meeting Hyunjin at the threshold, occasionally even crossing over. He would hear the footsteps, would vault over the counter, would skid to an awkward pause at the threshold under the bells and would collide, hands and fingers and wrists awkwardly with Hyunjin who would be reaching for the bells and Felix, skin meeting skin.

Felix would grip and hold onto the other boy’s fingers and hand and palm, squeezing. Would straighten up his back and square his shoulder. Would find the voice inside his chest, calm and serene.

“Hi Hyunjin.”

“Morning, Lix. How are ya?”

“I’m still hating myself, but the fireflies were nice last night. They sang about flowers.”

“We should go sometimes.”

“Yeah, we should.”

But Hyunjin doesn’t push. It’s Felix that have to do the pushing.

 

“What’s all the stuff for?” He gathers his courage one rare day. Hyunjin scrunches up the package, eyes smiling.

“For my mum. She has these chronic joint and lazy eye symptoms every time the autumn comes. Now that I’m here I keep buying her these remedies to help her get better. Dad’s busy out in the city so it’s just us, but we’re okay. Jisung visits sometimes and Jeongin, my neighbour, helps a lot.”

“Ah,” Felix realises, “I see.”

 

“Okay,” he drops the essence of angel’s tears inside the cauldron, stirring carefully, “I think I’m good. Nothing flammable will happen. Hopefully.”

“Careful there, mate, or it might get the other eye,” Chan calls out from the back, “you look great with green eye and everything, but if another potion goes off it’ll be a permanent blindness.”

“Shut up, you’re making me upset,” he hisses, blinking excessively to check that his eyes are in their sockets and functioning. Things are just adjusting now. He mucked up one potion and the green liquid projectile-vomit onto his face. There was acid and Greek fire and all the nasty crawlies of a manticore’s corpse. very dangerous if exposed onto skin. He toppled onto the ground and Jisung immediately administered emergency first aid and carted him off to the hospital, with Chan calling his family and informing them that their son, once again, fucked up another seemingly mundane potion and ‘there’s like a small chance he might lose an eye or both’. Mama Lee had a mini heart attack on her flight en route to the hospital, praying to the ancestors for his protection. His sisters took turn cursing and chanting good luck spells, hairs frizzing with electricity that zapped Chan in the toenails. The doctors were competent, at least, and Felix shielded his face and washed the acid off with some holier than normal holy water to treat the burns. His eyes were thankfully saved, avoided from permanent blindness, save for one deformity.

His mother said it was not, when they unwrapped the bandages around his eyes. Rachel gasped and Olivia froze, unable to comment snarkily on his appearance.

“You’ve…got a different coloured eye,” Jisung stage-whispered from the door, “it’s so badass. It’s green. Your left eye is green, Lee.”

He couldn’t see properly then but when he walked inside his house and looked up after he took off his shoes, he did a double take. His left eye is green. Bright green the colour of ripe lime. He stretched the corners, pulled the lid up, pulled the bottom lid down, staring at his own pupil.

It’s green and a physical reminder that he should not be allowed to brew flammable ingredients ever. Or allowed near magical things that go up in colourful flames. Jisung is tasked with overseeing his activities, correcting the strokes of his ladle and handling minor hazards so that the shop or Felix don’t descend into the infernal circles of hell before he gets the chance to finish the potion that had been brewing two nights ago. “For Hyunjin” he insisted and slaved over the potion. Jisung didn’t ask any more questions, content for him to move at his own pace for the courtship because a Felix doing his own thing is a happy Felix.

The liquids simmer and settle in a sheen of glimmering magic.

“Pain reliever,” Jisung catches a whiff of it, “well done, it’s good.”

“Duh,” he carefully ladles some into a vial, “it’s made with magic.”

“What kind, my little witchy snitchy Lee?”

He caps the vial and answers without looking at Jisung. “Love, obviously.”

He takes the push and stands outside, fingers splaying and tapping on his outer thigh. Hyunjin’s footsteps on the gravel path winding to the shop approach closer and closer. He sees the shadow of the boy, eclipsed by the setting sun, brown hair burning light mahogany in golden waves.

He takes one step, then another. Meets Hyunjin and reaches for his hand. Hyunjin doesn’t startle as much, clasping Felix’s hand like a routine, patting a few times to ascertain it is him. They stand, hands loosely in a grip, not saying any word.

“I have something for your mother,” his words take on the tone of air, “may I meet her?”

“Of course,” Hyunjin pulls his hand up and close to his chest, “she’s been waiting to meet you.”

 

Neither of them let go of their conjoined hands on the short walk back to Hyunjin’s house. Felix promises to take Hyunjin to the fireflies’ concert. They sing spectacularly and shine just as bright.

 

Mama Hwang is a beautiful and seems to suspend in time with her youthful skin. She moves slowly to meet Felix who lets go of Hyunjin’s hand and clasps her humming wrists, shaking under their joined grip.

“It’s a blessing to meet you,” he touches the back of her hand to his forehead, an ancient tradition of witches showing reverence and respect. The corner of her mouth curls and she mouths ‘hello young man’ as they let go of each other.

“Mama,” Hyunjin speaks from behind them, “this is Felix.”

“Oh I know,” the woman hums, “took you long enough.”

“I have a gift,” Felix hastily takes out his vial, “it’s for pain relief. I hope it helps with your physical ailments.”

Mama Hwang accepts the bottle with both hands, bowing to him as he hastily reciprocates the bow, meeting her eyes. The shade, if it’s on Hyunjin’s eyes, would suit him very well.

“Thank you, Felix,” she smiles. Then leans in closer, “for a lot of things, for everything.”

Felix shifts back to let Hyunjin check up on his mother, his hands roaming everywhere on her face, indenting onto her closed eyes, the ridge of her nose, the corners of her mouth.

“Go take a walk. Come back later. I’m fine,” he hears a murmur. Hyunjin complains under his breath.

“Jinnie, go. Listen to yourself sometimes,” she urges, nodding to Felix, “go.”

He reluctantly slides his hands off from her face, muttering a petulant ‘Okay, I’ll be back soon, mama’, turning to Felix.

He quickly joins Hyunjin’s side, slipping his hand into the boy’s and squeezing. He bows quickly to Mama Hwang who leans against the wall, eyes twinkling.

“Be good, boys. I’ll see you soon.”

 

 Felix walks with Hyunjin outside. He already knows where he should take the other boy.

“Let’s go listen to the fireflies,” he squeezes the hand that’s touching his, “today is a harvest. They’ll be up all day.”

“Okay, take me there.”

“Okay.”

 

Felix knows that he’s a mess of a witch and an even bigger mess of a person. He says dumb things in front of strangers and freaks out on a regular basis when he’s exposed to slightly foreign stimuli. He’s paranoid and he speaks too much and too fast and blows up potions in his eyes to fuck up the colour in one eye.

But Hyunjin by his side walking in the same field of reeds, hand tickling the pods hanging heavily with ripe seeds and the cascade of falling things makes him believe slightly that his life is less of a mess and there are good things in this world.

Like Hwang Hyunjin. Hyunjin is definitely One Good Thing In Felix’s Crumbling Life. Arguable the best. It’s still up to debate. His mother’s cakes are reigning permanent first but they don’t have hands that pull him closer when he walks on a road with literally no cars or heavily armed bears stampeding through, tucking him to their side.

Hyunjin has a solid 10 cm over him and he feels stupidly protected under the boy’s grip, all warmth and setting sunset and the starting rumble of the fireflies’ songs.

“They’re starting,” he perks up, “we need to run!”

Hyunjin is dragged along, fingers tightly clamped with Felix’s, so tight that the skin that belongs to Felix and the other one that is Hyunjin’s all blur into one, a hand that is Felix and Hyunjin and one conglomeration of an entity. They bypass reeds and leaves and dirt kicked up by ratty shoes, to where the fireflies huddle together, buzzing.

It’s the most beautiful song about harvesting in the moonlight and bathing in the sickle of the moon, reflecting on fairy pools that have no ends.

Hyunjin strains his ears for the words, Felix is sure. Not everyone can hear the fireflies at first. They buzz, sounds mellow and static in the air and Hyunjin’s head tips back, facing the sky, half of his face shined on by the purple clouds, a painting in the making, Adonis himself coiled in soil and reeds and clouds.

“Ethereal,” he breathes. He doesn’t need eyes to see Hyunjin’s beauty. He just _knows_.

“You too,” Hyunjin whispers back, “you brave creature.”

“I’m not.”

“Yes. Yes. Yes you are. You met me on your own terms. Is that not brave? Jisung told me you blew up a lot of potions yet you brewed that vial for my mother.”

“I – well, I wanted to. I want to do a lot, but that’s the most I could do now.”

“Sometimes, Felix, that’s more than enough.”

“What about you? Do you think you’re brave too?”

“On certain days. Now, especially. I’m looking at you, blind, but I’m kinda seeing you? Maybe? Souls transcend sight, Felix, I hope you know that, you who can hear beyond sounds. I’m standing before you, here, soul to soul, as an equal to another, telling you words from my soul. I’m not lying, Felix.”

He doesn’t say ‘believe me’, but Felix will be damned if he doesn’t, words like commandments to him.

“I wanted to treat your eyes. I want you to see, but-”

“No. No you don’t need to. I’m happy this way. I’m happy that I am the way I am. Changing myself will not always make me happier.”

He deflates significantly. Hyunjin chuckles, reaching for his hands, turning them over so that Felix’s palm faces up. Lowering his mouth onto the cracked palm, Hyunjin grazes his palm, breathing a soft ‘brave, brave soul, you have done so much already’.

“I’m proud of you,” he imprints the shape of his lips onto Felix’s palm, “please know that.”

“Okay,” Felix echoes, “okay.”

“Will you be with me?” Hyunjin looks up. Something beyond their eyes meet. Felix steps closer. Cradles Hyunjin’s chin in both of his palms. Rises as Hyunjin does. Hands circle around his waist, pressing against spine.

Standing on tiptoes, he leans his forehead to the other boy, bending his head to meet his in the middle. Skins meet and somewhere in the middle, they become one.

The song of the fireflies reaches a crescendo and a gust of wind sweeps through the reeds, attempting to separate them, but they are bound, one to another, beyond sight, beyond sound, standing resolutely on the field with parting fireflies buzzing above their heads.

 

“Hyunjin.”

“Yeah?”

“The fireflies are glowing.”

“They are, aren’t they?”

**Author's Note:**

> Honest to all the pagan gods up in the sky I sort of ran out of good words by the time the last dialogues started I'm so sorry I'll edit this soon IN THE MORNING RIP


End file.
